Apple scheme to encourage UK kids to get into engineering

Apple has announced its support for the Government's Year of Engineering scheme, designed to get more school children to enter the profession.

The technology giant said it would begin holding interactive sessions for schools in its retail stores later this year, aimed at sparking interest in coding and other engineering subjects.

The Year of Engineering scheme was launched by the Government in January to help reduce what it says is a job shortfall of 20,000 graduates a year, which is damaging growth in the industry.

To mark its support for the campaign, Apple engineers from the company's UK Silicon Design Centre in St Albans met schoolchildren in London to share their experiences of working in the industry.

The firm's vice president of hardware technologies, Johny Srouji, said: "The UK is home to some of the most highly skilled silicon engineers in the world and we're excited that our UK Silicon Design Centre is located in an area with world-renowned universities and a high concentration of incredible talent to help us advance even further ahead.

"We are hiring the very best engineering talent from across Europe in the fields of silicon design and verification and offering a range of complementary roles in software engineering and modelling.

"Engineering touches every part of our lives and during the UK's Year of Engineering we're also delighted to be supporting efforts to inspire interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers."

Apple said it also plans to double the size of its engineering team at the St Albans centre over the next year.